---
title: "YouTube Influencers Are Mentally Collapsing From Stress"
description: "Dark Underbelly It’s easy to see why so many people — particularly kids — long to be YouTube influencers. Make a living just by posting videos of yourself on the internet? Sounds great! But popular YouTuber Christine Sydelko wants people to know the job isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — in fact, she’s […]"
date: "2019-09-12"
modified: "2019-09-16"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/youtube-influencers-mentally-collapsing"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "internet influencer"
  - "social media"
  - "the digest"
  - "YouTube"
---

# YouTube Influencers Are Mentally Collapsing From Stress

![YouTube influencers feel constant pressure to churn out content, prompting some — including Christine Sydelko — to give up the gig.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/youtube-influencers-mentally-collapsing.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Google/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Dark Underbelly

It's easy to see why [so many people](<https://qz.com/1049408/becoming-a-social-media-influencer-is-the-new-unpaid-internship-and-just-as-exploitative/>) — [particularly kids](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronauts-american-kids-youtubers>) — long to be YouTube influencers. Make a living just by posting videos of yourself on the internet? Sounds great!

But popular [YouTuber Christine Sydelko](<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2M5KvRIDG-0WgBbgoDxweQ>) wants people to know the job isn't all it's cracked up to be.

In fact, she's decided to [quit the influencer game](<https://www.businessinsider.my/youtuber-vine-christine-sydelko-quits-internet-calls-it-trivial-2019-9/>) altogether, calling it "trivial," "unfulfilling," and the "main cause of \[her\] anxiety and depression" **—** a grim insider's look at the toll a career in digital content can take on influencers' mental health.

## Abnormal Life

Sydelko started vlogging in 2015, and she now has 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube. But despite her popularity, she [tweeted](<https://twitter.com/csydelko/status/1170052368966258688>) on September 6 that she has decided to "quit the internet stuff."

That post was preceded by a [June tweet](<https://twitter.com/csydelko/status/1137381962769809408>) in which Sydelko noted the toll being an influencer was taking on her mental health and lamented her decision to forgo a "normal life."

## Breaking Point

Sydelko [isn't the first](<https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/29/13776894/pewdiepie-quit-casey-neistat-vlog-youtube-vloggers>) influencer to struggle under the weight of internet fame. In January, *Insider* published a [story](<https://www.insider.com/youtube-burnout-alishamarie-pewdiepie-casey-neistat-describe-pressures-of-the-industry-2019-1>) highlighting several YouTube influencers who experienced so much mental anguish, they felt a need to quit the site, too — at least temporarily.

"\[YouTube\] kind of is a machine and it makes creators believe that we have to pump out content consistently," Lilly Singh [told her 14 million YouTube subscribers](<https://youtu.be/-5OfFk5c01o>) in a November video announcing her own break, "even at the cost of our health and our life and our mental happiness."

**READ MORE:** [Christine Sydelko, a YouTuber with 1.3 million subscribers, decided to quit the internet for good because being an influencer is 'such a trivial job'](<https://www.businessinsider.my/youtuber-vine-christine-sydelko-quits-internet-calls-it-trivial-2019-9/>) \[*Business Insider*\]

**More on YouTube:** *[Astronauts Are Out. American Kids Would Rather Be YouTubers.](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronauts-american-kids-youtubers>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)